Microsoft Says Your Phone is Your Next PC

eldavojohn writes "While other companies are marrying the obvious functionalities to cell phones (calendar, MP3 player, GPS, etc.), Microsoft is aiming for it to be your next computer. Microsoft Research chief Craig Mundie said that, "Microsoft has a research project called 'Fone+' that would allow the phone to work with a TV as a secondary display, and one that could allow video stored on the device to be played back on the television.""

And they will call it the Nokia N95.

[Anonymous Coward]

And actually I think the N93 could also output to the TV... Ah well, better late than never I guess.

Windows Mobile 5.0

[strikethree]

No. My cel phone is not my next PC. There are two main problems. The first is that nobody has figured out a reasonable UI with the screenspace that is available. The second is that Windows Mobile 5.0 is buggy, bloated, slow, and not very useful to program for.

I have a smart phone right now and it crashes about once a week with no extra software installed other than what came with the phone.

strike

Re:Gee..

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Actually, MS has been ahead of Apple in this market for at least 11 years starting with Windows CE.

That really depends on how far back you want to go and how long you want to carry out an argument. Windows CE didn't exist until about five years after the original Newton.

Re:Wrong on all counts

[4iedBandit]

+1 MS Fanboy Troll, but it's late and I have to wait on a long print job.

1) You can't make a phone call on a Newton. You can on a CE device. Both WindowsMobile and SmartPhone are CE devices.

Phone calls? No. The Newton is probably better compared to a tablet PC, and still people like you wouldn't like it because it wasn't a full "Windows" PC. My old Newton is still way "smarter" than any smart phone I've seen from any vendor running any OS. Granted it took Apple years to get it right. But the last iteration nailed it. It was the most useful device I ever owned. I'd still use it today if I could easily sync it with my current computer.

2) A vitual keyboard is not a keyboard. Don't BS me.

"Waaa, it's not the device I want!" *GASP* Could it possibly be you're not the target market? I have a smart phone, with a full qwerty keyboard. I'm afraid I have to side with Apple on this one. With my man sized thumbs typing on a virtual keyboard is certainly no less accurate than using my current Barbie Doll sized one. A virtual keyboard goes away when I don't need it, for instance when I'm trying to read a web page. I'll gladly take more screen space to display and a keyboard that only shows up when I need it.

3) 'Considering' is not the same as 'have had for 11 years.'

First is not always best, and not always the winner in the market. Microsoft proved that with Windows. Apple has re-proven it with the iPod, and now we'll find out shortly if they're going to do it with smart phones.

What's truly cool about the CE platform is you could recreate the entire Iphone experience with it and sell it - all probably before the Ibrick comes out.

And this is precisely why people say Microsoft doesn't innovate. Sure, they could have created the iPhone experience with CE, but they didn't. Microsoft doesn't innovate. They copy. I watched the iPhone introduction and Steve Jobs was right about one thing. In the smart phone market the killer app is MAKING PHONE CALLS! Everything else is just fluff. Since Jobs has returned to Apple they have been very focused on getting the primary functions right the first time, and making sure the fluff is damn good too.

The only reason Microsoft released this info is to try and steal some of Apple's thunder. Sure the iPhone isn't out yet. But in a months time it will be, and every other phone out there is going to be compared to it. I look forward to seeing how it stacks up and if it does well in the one thing I need my mobile phone to do well (MAKING PHONE CALLS) I have $500 ready to spend on it. All the features not related to MAKING PHONE CALLS are just a bonus.

Am I a sheep? No. I prefer to spend my money on things that just work when I need them too. Apple's got a much better track record of that than Microsoft.

Re:Dont count out MS yet.

[tomstdenis]

ODF isn't a wrapper around binary data. It's a zip'ed archive of XML files. All of the text and styles are in plaintext english. It's also very verbose [which is also a downside]. OOo isn't perfect, but it's at least "open."

To